Trailer hitch



2 Sheets-Sheet 1 A. RANKIN TRAILER HITCH Filed Dec. 15, 1938 E v R. a W 0 June 4, 1940.

aka/mu v V m T i mm June 4-, 1940. RANK|N I 2,202,867

TRAILER HITCH Filed Dec. 15, 193B 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 W 1 4. QC 6"\ Patented June 4, 1940 UNETD Si'lES TENT OFFICE 1 TRAILER. HITCH Locks, Oreg.

Application December 15, 1938, Serial No. 245,978

4 Claims.

This invention relates to an improved coupler for connecting draft and trailer vehicles of various types.

It is an object of this invention to provide a coupler having means to rigidly or pivotally connect the coupler head to a draft vehicle, and means for resiliently connecting a coupler link to a trailer vehicle to provide a springconnection between the trailer and draft vehicle.

More particularly, it is an object of this invention to provide an improved trailer coupling including a head having a hook mounted therein adapted to be projected to an operative position by engagement of a link with said head to conneot the hook and link, and latch means projected by the movement of said hook to retain the hook and link in engagement until said latch means are manually retracted.

Still a further object of the invention, is to provide an improved form of locking means for retaining the hook and link in engagement, having operating means for raising or retracting the latch for permitting the hook to be moved to its released position, said latch member being projected by gravity when released by the hook moving to an operative position to retain the hook in an operative position until the latch member is again manually retracted.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will hereinafter become more fully apparent from the following description of the drawings, which illustrate a preferred embodiment of the invention, and wherein:

Figure 1 is a top plan view showing the coupler connected,

Figure 2 is a longitudinal vertical sectional view taken on the line 2-2 of Figure 1,

Figure 3 is a transverse vertical sectional view taken on the line 3-3 of Figure 2,

Figure 1 is a bottom plan View of the coupler head showing the recessed block with the bottom plate of the head removed, and with the hook in an operative position engaging the link,

Figure 5 is a view similar to Figure l showing the hook in an inoperative or released position, Figure 6 is a longitudinal vertical sectional view taken on the line 6-6 of Figure 1,

Figure '7 is a front elevational view of the coupler head showing the hook in an operative 59 position, and

Figure 8 is a fragmentary side elevational view on a reduced scale of the attachment used in pivotally connecting the coupler head to a draft vehicle. 55 Referring more particularly to the drawings,

wherein like reference characters designate like or corresponding parts throughout the different views, I 0 designates generally the coupler head and I I the coupler link which are adapted to be secured to a beam I2 of a draft vehicle and to a 5' draw bar or tongue I3 of a trailer vehicle respectively.

The coupler head It] includes the block I4 provided with a recess designated generally I5, which opens outwardly of the forward end of said block, 10 and which includes the arcuately shaped hori- Zontally disposed portion I6 and the vertically disposed outwardly diverging portion II, portions l6 and I I communicating with each other adjacent the bottom of the portion IT. A bot- 5 tom plate It is removably secured by means of the fastening I9 to the bottom of the block I4 to form a bottom for the recess I5. Plate I8 is provided with an arcuately shaped outwardly diverging tapered recess 20, which communicates 20 with the recess I7 and forms a part thereof when the plate 58 is in position. Secured to the back of the block I 3 and the plate I8 is a plate 2I which extends beyond the opposite sides of the block I l and plate I8 to receive the removable g5 fastenings 22 to removably and rigidly secure the head It to the beam I2.

Extending downwardly through the block I4 and through the recess I6 and bottom plate I8 is a bolt 23 which is secured to the head II] by means 30 of the nut 25. A hook, designated generally 25, is mounted in the recess I6 and is provided with an opening 26 in its shank through which the bolt 23 extends, as best seen in Figure 5, to pivotally mount the hook. A slide 21 is reciprocal- 5 1y mounted in the recess I! and is provided with a recess 28 in. its bottom into which extends the reduced end of the shank 2;) to connect the slide 737 and hook 25. The reduced end 29 of the shank forms with the intermediate portion 0 36 thereof, the shoulder 3I for a purpose which will hereinafter be described.

Vertically disposed in the head I0 and positioned substantially parallel to the bolt 23, is the pin or latch member 32 which is reciprocally 5 mounted in the bore 33 and which extends through the head I0 including the recess I6. Mounted on top of the head II) in spaced relationship to each other, are the bearing members 34 which are secured to the block It by means of the fastenings 35 and in which is journaled the shaft 36 having a crank handle 3'! keyed to one end thereof, and a lever 33 keyed to the opposite end. Lever 38, as best seen in Figure 6, is provided with a slot 39 adjacent its free. end adapted 5 to engage the eyelet :0 on the upper end of the pin 32 to cause said pin to be raised by an upward movement of the crank 37 to a retracted position with its lower end disposed above the upper side of the hook 25.

Link H, as best seen in Figures 2 and 3, is provided with an eyelet 4i and a shank 32 projecting from said eyelet, and adapted to be slidably mount-ed in the openings 13 of the walls 44 of the housing Housing 65 is adapted to be secured by means of the iastenings it to the draw bar or tongue l3 of the trailer vehicle, not shown, and to provide a spring cushioning connection between the trailer and draft vehicles. The expansion coil springs 5% are mounted on the intermediate portion of the shank 52 with their opposite ends engaging against the adjacent sides oi the spaced walls M, and with their adjacent ends engaging a pin 4? which extends transversely through the shank so that the springs 18 will alternately resist an inward or outward movement of the link i i relatively to the housing 15. Eyelet 5-! forms a step to limit the inward movement of the link i E, and a disk 3-3 reniovably secured to the inner end of the shank 6?. by the fastening 9 is positioned in spaced relationship to the inner wall i i, to limit the outward movement of the link ii. Housing 55 may be provided with the side walls 5E2 removably mounted by the iastenings El, as best seen in Figure 3, for exposing the interior of the forward end thereof, in which the springs and pin G? are mounted, for repair or adjustment of these parts.

An attachment is provided, comprising a plate 52 having the spaced apertured lugs disposed in vertical. alignment relatively to each other and adapted to receive a pin, not shown, to pivotally connect plate 52 to a draft vehicle such as a tractor. Plate 52 is adapted to be removably secured by means of the iastenings M to the back plate 2! when it is desirable to pivotally mount the head Ill on the draft vehicle instead of rigidly mounting it as indicated in Figures 1 and 2. Head it may be provided with the outwardly extending loop members 55 adapted to be loosely connected by any suitable means not shown, to either the draft or trailer vehicle or both, to maintain a connection between the draft and trailer vehicles in case the head it and link H should he accidentally disconnected or in the event that either the head id or link ll should become disconnected from its draft or trailer respectively.

From the foregoing it will be seen, that the crank 3'! may be raised to retract the latch member or pin 32 so that the hook 25 may be moved to its inoperative or released position, as seen in Figure 5, and in this position the lower end of the pin 32 will rest on the top of portion 38 of the hook 25 and will thus be held retracted. When the hook 25 is in the position as seen in Figure 5, slide 2"! will be held in a projected position by engagement with the end 28 to be engaged by the forward end of the eyelet M which will be guided into engagement with the head i!) by the outwardly converging portion 56 of the recess ll. Eyelet il in moving into the recess i! will strike the slide 2'! to force it inwardly to its retracted position, thus swinging the hook 25 on its pivot 23 into its operative or engaging position so that the bill 57 of the hook 25 will engage and connect with the eyelet ii, as seen in Figure 4. This will cause the shank portion Ell of the hook 25 to be moved out of engagement with the pin 32 permitting it to be projected by gravity through the space between the shoulder 3| and the end 29, to engage against shoulder 3| thus preventing hook 25 from being retracted to release the link H. The sections it) and H of the coupler will thus be held in a connected position relatively to each other until the latch member 32 is manually retracted by raising crank 31 to release the hook 25 to permit it to be swung to its inoperative position by an outward pull on the link H.

Various modifications and changes in the construction and arrangement of the parts forming the invention may obviously be made and are contemplated, as the drawings and description are only intended to illustrate a preferred embodiment thereof, and the right is therefrom expressly reserved to make such variations and changes as do not depart from the spirit and scope of the invention as hereinafter defined by the appended claims.

I claim as my invention:

1. In a device of the class described, a coupling head provided with a recess, a hook pivotally mounted in said recess and having a restricted shank, a slide member reciprocally mounted in said recess and provided with a slot adapted to receive said restricted shank, a latch member extending downwardly through said block and slidably mounted therein, and an operator mounted on top of said block and connected to said latch member.

2. A device as in claim 1, and a link having an eyelet to receive said hook for coupling the link and head, said link and head being movable relatively to each other to project the link into said recess to engage and retract the slide to swing the hook into engagement with the eyelet, and said latch member being released from a retracted position by the movement of said hook to be projected by gravity to lock the hook in an operative position.

3. In a device of the class described, a trailer hitch comprising a head adapted to be secured to a draft vehicle and provided with an outwardly diverging recess, a hook pivotally mounted in said recess, said hook being provided with a shank having a reduced free end forming a shoulder on its outer side, a latch member slidably mounted in said head, an operator connected to one end of said latch member for retracting it, the opposite end of said latch member, when in a retracted position, engaging the shank of said hook when in its uncoupled position, a block slidably mounted in the recess and having a cutout portion to receive the reduced end of the shank, and a link adapted to be connected to a trailer, said link being movable relatively to said head to enter said recess to engage the block to thereby actuate said hook, the bill of said hook being swung thereby into engagement with said link to release the latch member, said latch member being projected by gravity to engage behind the shoulder to lock the hook in engagement with the link.

4. In a device of the class described, a coupling head adapted to be secured to a draft vehicle and provided with a recess having an outwardly diverging end and an enlarged portion, a hook pivotally mounted in said recess, a block slidably mounted in the enlarged portion of said recess and engaging the shank end of said hook, gravity actuated latch means slidably mounted in said head, a crank mounted on the top of said block and being connected to one end of said latch gage and retract the block to project the bill of the hook into locking engagement with said link, and said latch member being released by the movement of said hook to be projected by gravity to retain the hook in engagement with the link. 5

ALBERT L. RANIGN. 

